CWU Retired Members

The Retired Members'
Fringe meeting got off to a late start due to General Conference running over
in order to hear from Jeremy Corbyn.

Allan Trotter chaired
the meeting and introduced Tony Kearns the Senior Deputy General Secretary who
said that through the RMAC the union is defending the Triple Lock for State
Pension increases, defending the Basic State Pension, defending Retired Members
and defending all workers for their future as pensioners.

He said the union
always woks closely with the NPC to support them in their campaigns to protect
pensioner issues.

Continuing, Tony said
it is the responsibility of the states do society to take care of its most
vulnerable people but their Tory government does not do that. It is happy to
look after millionaires and global companies moving benefits from disabled
people. And they will keep coming back for more, all in the dogmatic drive for
austerity.

The passage of motion
10 this morning shows that Retired Members are making policy of this Union and
promised that the defence of the Triple Lock will be taken forward to the TUC.

Neil Duncan Jordan,
National Officer of the National Pensioners' Convention, was the guest speaker
and paid tribute to the CWU for its continued support which is much
appreciated. He said he hoped motion 78 on the afternoon agenda concerning NPC
funding would be carried because the NPC desperately needs extra income.

Neil said the NPC is
the umbrella movement for pensioners; it's the trade union for pensioners.

Turning to the wedge
that continues to be driven between the generations Neil said it is being
driven by powerful right wing think tanks, Tory dogma and the right wing media.
They say pensioners have escaped the effects of austerity whilst workers have
suffered pay freezes. This leads to an attack on on Universal Benefits and on
Pensions. But society is not like that. Grandparents care for children;
daughters and sons care for parents. Families stick together.

But is it true that
pensioners have escaped austerity? There's been a £4.6 billion reduction in
social care funding in the last 10 years.

Meals on Wheels has
virtually disappeared. Malnutrition is on the increase.

Millions of pensioners
live in substandard housing leading to fuel poverty and increased Winter
deaths.

We have the least
adequate state pension in the Western world, only Chile and Mexico are worse
among OECD countries.

All of these factors,
Neil asserted, are as a direct result of successive governments policies. They
are not the fault nor are they caused by pensioners.

Future generations will
have worse occupational pensions than current pensioners mainly as a result of
the closure of final salary schemes. Historically governments have been happy
to encourage private pensions because they propped up the woeful state pension.
The new auto enrolment scheme is totally inadequate. It is forecast to provide
a pension pot of £30,000 which will buy a pension of £1200 per annum on current
rates. The NPC will pressure both the Tories and Labour to improve this scheme.

But if we took away the
bus pass; if we means tested Winter Fuel Allowance which, incidentally, would
save only £150 million out of a pension budget of £92 billion, there is no
guarantee it would be spent on the under 25's; no guarantee it would be used to
raise standards. More likely on this government's record it would simply be
used to lower our standard of living.

Property ownership and
the rise of property values over decades they say makes us too rich. But this
generation of pensioners were encouraged to buy our own homes so we could pay
for our own social care!

Arguments that the
triple lock is too generous are just nonsense. The state pension is still below
the poverty level and the difference between the current pension and the new so
called Single Tier Pension will widen over time. The whole of the new pension
is protected by the triple lock whereas the State Second Pension element on
today's pension is excluded.

The arguments about
inequality between generations are phoney arguments. The 5 richest families in
this country have as much wealth as as the 12.5 million poorest people. That's
the real inequality.

Attacks on Universal
Benefits are not about money, they're about attacking the Welfare System. The
Tories want to diminish or privatise the Welfare System. They've already
privatised the free TV licence for the over 75's. From 2018 it'll be the
responsibility of the BBC, a position the BBC were forced into in defence of
it's Charter. How long will the BBC maintain it is anyone's guess, and they'll
be able to reduce or abolish it without reference to parliament. It's not the
BBC's role to administer welfare benefits. And, if they can privatise the TV
licence what will stop them from farming out the Winter Fuel Allowance to the
energy companies or the bus pass to the transport companies.

The State Pension Age
is already scheduled to increase to 68 and will be subject to revue every 5
years. The excuse is that people are living longer but there's a 7 year
difference in life expectancy between the rich and the poor. Life expectancy is
also job related. We might be living longer but can we work longer? The mantra
seams to be "pay in longer, get less out".

Finally, Neil said the
NPC will continue to link older concerns with those of the younger generations.
The NPC is on it 24 hours a day. The support of the CWU is both appreciated and
crucial.

General Secretary,
Dave Ward, and SDGS Tony Kearns were the guest speakers at the North West
Regional Conference which uniquely includes the sectional AGM’s. Dave was
complementary of the format for the meeting and of the North West for being
such an active Region. Similarly the CWU is at the forefront among unions in
opposing the anti Trade Union Bill as it progresses through Parliament.

The main thrust of
the General Secretary’s contribution
concerned the organisation of the CWU. He spoke about the challenges facing the
CWU and what we need to do to meet those challenges. Stressing that the prime
purpose of any union is to serve its membership. There is a trend in the trade
union movement for the large, powerful unions to mop up smaller, weak ones. The
strategy needs to recognise this and take steps to avoid the CWU falling into
that category. That is why the NEC discussion document is so wide ranging,
leaving it open to consider everything and involve everyone. The plan will
evolve and will be long term. One plan will be developed and everyone will sign
up to it.

This is not a problem
exclusive to the CWU, Dave said. Change is needed across the trade union
movement to re-connect with members. Both Labour and unions need to confront
their own failings. We need to involve more members, making them feel a part of
the union and that the union is their union. It doesn’t just belong to the activists. Support for
workplace reps is already better than most unions but it needs to be improved
so that the union and the movement in general is more vibrant and more relevant
to the majority of workers. We need to re-vamp what we offer to members and to
consider how we would organise if we were starting from scratch.

Tony Kearns continued
in the same vein saying there were three strands to the union; political,
industrial and financial. There is scope to bring together industrial and
political structures because industrial issues are very often political issues
and vice versa. Royal Mail privatisation and the People’s Post campaign; or
broadband rollout in telecoms. All have an impact industrially but are
political decisions. The Tory government is getting more involved with
industrial issues and the introduction of the Trade Union Bill is designed to
weaken trade unions, disable Labour party finances and maintain the Tory Party
in power for a very long time.

Turning to our
declining membership Tony said we now have fewer than 191,500 members, a loss
of 5,500 which equates to a reduction of £1.1 million of income. Whilst there
are numerous reasons for this it brings serious financial problems especially
as the rate of loss is increasing. We need to ask members what type of union
they want. There're 25,000 people employed in BT and Royal Mail who are not
members. We need to find out why, identify where we can recruit and involve
both members and non-members.